The Cape Cod Ice Cream Challenge

Nauset Ice Cream

Everyone who has a little brother knows that they can be a handful. Always getting into your stuff, getting away with things you never could have, and generally annoying the bejezus out of you. As little brothers grow up however that relationship turns slowly to one of love and respect. When each of you gets a bit more mature you start to see you have a lot more in common than you thought.

With memories of fights long past, it was my pleasure to welcome my little brother Mike to the Cape. He and two of his high school football buddies had planned one last grand road trip before they each went to different colleges.

They arrived and almost at once began to tell tales of horrible and crazy New England drivers. I too remember how infuriating it was that the east coast drivers were so rude, and dangerous. I guess the Midwest is still good for some things (we don’t drive fast because we have no place to go.)

After the beach, and the dunes, and the beach, and the MBL and the beach again, it was time for some ice cream. We had wanted to visit Nauset Ice Cream, and we just so happened to be out that way so we stopped for a scoop.

Before I talk about the ice cream I have to tell you about my “little” brother. He long ago stopped being smaller than me. He is taller than me, outweighs me by at least 50 pounds, and plays football on a team that made it to the finals. His two friends are bigger than he is, and in a twilight zone like moment I heard each of them say “we are full, we don’t want any ice cream.” Frankly I was stunned, but ohh well more for Tess and I.

Nauset Ice Cream serves hard pack, and frozen yogurt. They make the hard pack there, but buy the yogurt. We never figured out what company sold them the frozen yogurt.

The shop is small, but has ample seating out front. The servers were, how should we say, not that thrilled with there job. They were not rude, but hardly showed any real love for slinging scoops. The interior has several nice murals (note the three bruisers that would be Mike in the middle).

Tess got the Mocha Chip and I got the Cape Cod Cranberry. The ice cream was pretty good. The Cranberry had cranberry crazins in it with cranberry flavored ice cream. The key to a good cranberry (or any berry) ice cream is to use a dried berry. The reason is that the undried berry gets frozen solid and makes for a horrible eating experience. Crazins on the other hand remain soft and chewy adding the perfect bit of cranberry zing to the cream. The cranberry ice cream was very subtle. It was either flavored delicately or had picked up the cranberry goodness from the crazins. Either way the combo of the two was refreshing on a hot summer day.

As coffee flavored anything makes me want to boot, I had to take Tess’ word for it that her ice cream was also good. The main draw back of the place is that it has a wonderful view of the parking lot, with an even better view of Rt 6. It’s also packed into a shopping center with a beer and wine store on one side and a Thai food place on the other. I guess you could get dinner at the Thai place, go get ice cream, then grab a six pack for later.

Nauset ice cream makes a good scoop, but the service could have been a tad bit more helpful, and the atmosphere is a bit lacking. Even with these draw backs we decided that it deserved four scoops, simply because the ice cream was creamy, rich, and really hit the spot. After all we are trying to find the best ice cream, not the most beautiful ice cream shop.

Tale of the tape

Homemade: YES!

Flavors:

Size of the serving:

Taste:
Richness:

Creaminess:

Iciness:(higher means less ice):

Toppings:

Stuff in Cream:

Atmosphere:

Service:

Price: $2.85 for a small.
Final Rating:

Address:
4550 State Highway, Eastham, MA 02642
Phone:
(508) 240-2649
Driving Directions: Click Here

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 6th, 2006 at 8:39 pm and is filed under 4Cone, Reviews, Shane. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.